While a motive for the attempted “hit” is still unknown, police said they were actively pursuing more than one line of inquiry.

A dedicated team of officers was set up to specifically investigate the shooting, with members of the public urged to come forward with information.

Key to the case is a stolen black Citroen C4, suspected to have been the gunmen’s getaway car from Mr Osu’s house on the corner of Woolton Road and Beauclair Drive.

The car was found in flames a mile away on Waldgrave Road, near to the Rocket flyover in Broadgreen.

Neighbours said it was lucky the car did not explode beneath the railway bridge where it was dumped.

One said: “That car was burnt out not only so close to people’s homes but several metres away from a railway bridge.

“This is a busy throughway for pedestrians, especially children. It was just by good fortune that this car did not blow up – if it had, God knows what would have happened.”

Detectives today continued an appeal to trace anyone who had seen the car – registration DU55 ENM – after its theft in Bootle in mid-October.

Relatively little is still known about the victim, whose brother Mark was suspected by police of being a key player in gang violence on Merseyside in the mid-1990s.

But police have no information linking Mr Osu to serious organised crime.

One witness told detectives that the former amateur boxer had a business interest in currency trading and was renting the detached five-bedroom home.

He remained in a coma under heavy sedation last night after being shot in the skull, face, chest and arms.

Police yesterday lifted the cordon in Beauclair Drive with a patrol car positioned outside the drive.

Neighbours knew little of Mr Osu and said they had never seen anything suspicious on the street, where house prices fetch upwards of £350,000.

One neighbour, who did not wish to be named, believed Mr Osu had moved in around five years ago and had seen him with a woman and children.

The neighbour said: “He kept himself to himself. You only saw him when he was driving his car in and out.”

Another neighbour spoke of the shock felt on the street by the shooting. He said: “People are very concerned about what happened and they feel they and their immediate neighbours are very fortunate because if they had got the wrong person it could have been very serious.

“There is not much crime around here, it is quite a peaceful area, and neighbours are very concerned about what has happened.

“We feel very fortunate it did not go any further.”

Det Chief Supt Paul Richardson, who is leading the hunt to find the gunmen, sought to reassure residents.

He said a case of mistaken identity was “highly unlikely” given that the gunmen, wearing anoraks and trousers as opposed to tracksuits, waited outside the house for up to 40 minutes.

He said: “We have no information that anyone else would have been driving that Mercedes.”

Footage seized by the police showed one gunman open fire through the passenger window as the other shoots through the driver’s window.

Mr Richardson said: “The investigation is in its early stages and we are still trying to ascertain the motive behind the attack.

“A team of detectives will be working along with colleagues from the Matrix team and Liverpool South to ensure that we are able to establish exactly what happened, and bring those responsible to justice.

“There will be an increased police presence in the area in the days to come.”